SOLVED NY - Tala Farea, 16, Rotana Farea, 22, Hudson River, 24 Oct 2018- COD released: suicide/drowning

I envision perpendicular to each other? But the bodies may have "shifted" as they floated or fell into the water IMO. The binding seems important but it seems impossible to report they were bound perpendicular to each other without some awfully fancy and STRONG taping.

Yeah, I'm not putting any stock in that particular detail at all.
 
When I read cross formation I pictured their arms taped together too (facing each other with arms outstretched). That is obviously an important detail if true because they would not be able to do that themselves.

I don't know how their arms would stay outstretched instead of down by their sides after falling and floating in the river so I didn't really put much credence into that report.
 
When I read cross formation I pictured their arms taped together too (facing each other with arms outstretched). That is obviously an important detail if true because they would not be able to do that themselves.

I don't know how their arms would stay outstretched instead of down by their sides after falling and floating in the river so I didn't really put much credence into that report.

Maybe they meant the girls, or at least the girl whose back was facing up, had her arms outstretched in the “dead’s man float” type of position? Idk but I’m not putting much stock into it either, especially considering the source.
 
While papers face decreasing subscription numbers and have cut staff accordingly, the great national paper the New York Times, and perhaps the most readable paper after Guardian, the Washington Post, do in fact fact check, copy edit, and are grammatically inclined.

Reporting in real time is hard. Mistakes happen. It's not the Golden Age but it will do.

Remember: a free press is all that stands between us and those who mean us harm.
I understand what your saying , but I was just stating an observation that I along with many of my friends in the industry have noticed. I have been involved in the publishing industry since 1986.
My friends and I have a running joke. Everybody with a blog is an Editor and everybody with a phone is a Photographer or so they think they are.
 
What is the source for them being in a cross formation? I saw earlier someone linked this NY post article but I didn't see that info in the article. Full disclosure - I am sick and my brain is really hazy so I might be missing it.

https://nypost.com/2018/10/24/two-duct-taped-bodies-found-at-upper-west-side-park-cops/

ETA - I found this link where it says that, but I hadn't read that before. I wonder how accurate this info is. jmo

▷Cops ID sisters found dead, bound with duct tape in Riverside Park ▷New York Daily News

Yes good question bear10. Now the link from Daily News says BOTH girls were missing since aug 24. Who knows.
--------------------------------
Tala Farea, 16, and her older sister Rotana Farea, 22, had been reported missing by Fairfax, Va., police, said reports.
The sisters went missing from their home in Fairfax on Aug. 24, said a police source.
 
I had taken the cross formation to mean that their bodies had rotated to be in a cross formation rather than they died in a cross formation. The water churning action is most likely to misalign objects that are attached with tape rapped around the middle.

The Post is the only outlet to state this detail so far, though. Still hoping we will find out more.
 
Why is the first word of the title "unsolved"? Since when do suicides need to be solved?
 
I do not believe we know what Tala and Rotana’s religious beliefs were or if they had any.

If they were Muslim (“Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia and its law requires all citizens to be Muslims. Public worship by adherents of religions other than Islam is forbidden,”)
Religion in Saudi Arabia - Wikipedia
however, it is possible, IMO, that maybe they were trying to make their suicides look like homicides.

As Islam forbids suicide, perhaps they were afraid that their family would be ostracized or shamed by their community if suicide was so obvious:

“Like other Abrahamic religions, Islam views suicide strictly as sinful and detrimental to ones spiritual journey. However, human beings are said to be liable to committing mistakes, thus, God forgives the sins and wipes them out if the individual is truly sincere in repentance, true to the causes and determined in intention.”
Religious Views on Suicide

I am of the opinion that this was indeed a case of double suicide. And if so, I feel absolutely terrible that both Tala and Rotana felt this was their only option. Prayers to them and their loved ones.
 
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I really don't get the suicide vibe from this. It's hard for me to picture how you would even get yourself out there and then over the rail taped together like this idk.

This is why I am having a hard time believing they jumped from the GWB. Because I think it’d be just as conspicuous and close to as difficult for someone to throw them over as it would be for them to do it themselves.
 
Why is the first word of the title "unsolved"? Since when do suicides need to be solved?

Probably bc the cause of death is pending and the investigation is ongoing. The family does not believe this was a suicide. I think we’d all hope that if this happened to our loved ones, LE would investigate rather than immediately writing it off as a suicide. Imo unless there is a note, surveillance, and/or credible testimony from those who knew the girls, it’s wise of LE to continue to investigate.
 
Well, if they were found down river from the bridge, unless there's video of them ON that bridge, I think they were put in the water somewhere else. And I too heard about the cross formation, but I think it was in a video. Saudi Arabia doesn't have the same customs we do. I don't know how long the family has been in the USA. I think someone else was involved in their deaths though. Would them leaving to live in another state be 'crime' enough for family to punish/kill them? I don't know. Sad situation.
 
2 Sisters Were Found Dead in the River, Duct-Taped Together. Police Have Few Answers.
Rotana Farea was 22; Tala Farea was 16. They had a history of going missing, and they had recently requested asylum in the United States, the police said.

But beyond that, the circumstances of their deaths have remained a mystery. Investigators have struggled to piece together how two young women from a city more than 250 miles away turned up along Manhattan’s Hudson River shoreline.
At first, the police theorized the women might have leapt from the George Washington Bridge. People who jump from the bridge often end up in Riverside Park. But the women’s bodies would have had signs of trauma after falling from that height, investigators said. Plus they would have had to have jumped during the day, and a motorist would likely have seen them.

“We are currently looking for what might have been their entry point into the water,” one law-enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation. “We are checking both sides of the river.”
But the police in New York said the mother, whom they did not identify, also reported her daughters missing last year. When the local police located the sisters, they asked for protection and were placed in a shelter, the police said.

Earlier this year, Rotana Farea was living in a fifth-floor apartment in a luxury complex on the edge of an outdoor mall in Fairfax Corner, Va., a suburban neighborhood about a 30-minute drive from Washington, D.C., a leasing agent there said. Ms. Farea moved out in July.

In late August, Tala Farea was again reported missing to the Fairfax County authorities, who distributed a missing-person poster online. The poster said she might be with her sister Rotana. In October, someone again reported the sisters missing in Virginia, the police in New York said.
 
Wow, this is a very sad and intriguing story so far. I wonder if it is true that they were ordered back after asking for asylum if they were afraid that they would end up like Khashoggi. So terribly sad to think that a person seeking asylum feels that they might be forced to go back to their country to experience torture.
 
NYPD: Checking if Saudis ordered twins home

"An NYPD spokesman on Monday discounted reports that the women may have jumped from the George Washington Bridge because surveillance cameras found no evidence of that. A fall into the Hudson from the bridge would also have caused trauma to the bodies, as well as shredded the duct tape binding the sisters together, said police. Investigators were looking for possible points of entry for the bodies on either side of the river, said the NYPD."
 
I am not thrilled about relying on a source that mistakenly calls the sisters "twins" but I do think NYPD and the ME would pretty quickly know if they jumped from the GWB. Unfortunately people jump from all 6 Manhattan bridges so they would know what entry impact injuries should look like.
 

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